I started them on April 30th, then took out a bunch and finally finished redoing them on May 10th, so my timeline is going to start there.

Initial twist and rips:

and close up you can tell that they are huge, i only had 22.

and here they are shortly after finishing, now up to 82 or something.

after 5 days i'm noticing loops:

Three weeks, still falling out...

4ish weeks - didn't take any great photos, just have one taken out of frustration while separating them... they are really starting to party in the back...

6ish weeks taken while on a river trip. not a great photo of the hair itself, but you can tell just how much loose hair there is and it's kind of a frizzy mess. it's a real party in the back though. Separating after this trip was a PITA. and on the sides of my head several of the babies are just totally straight brushable hair, but staying separated for the most part.

almost 7 weeks:

pretty much every baby in the back is loopy as hell, the sides are still not doing so great. i'll try to get some better photos of that for 8 weeks!

also, when i separate the back, there is a lot of crossover and ripping going on... i get the gist that this is perfectly normal and everything, but is this going to be a problem a year or two down the road? any advices appreciated.

and 11 weeks in the back. still haven't separated after washing yesterday. and the separation i've been doing has avoided any ripping - don't want to rip more hair if i'm going to start over.

so far, I haven't done anything with the matting- massive ripping or taking them out, i haven't been able to decide. as much as I hate them sometimes, I seem to be quite attached to my babies.

The mat is pretty much all over the back of my head and it's really hard to show it in pictures. I can pinch a section and the mat will be an inch or two away from the scalp. i just can't imagine ripping through that and there are way way way too many congos to deal with.

would you take them out if this was your hair? if i do take them out, i will be starting over and trying again

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Update 8/15/14

So I combed them all out starting 8/2, 12 weeks after they were done but 14 weeks after starting. The last few weeks i kinda knew i was going to take them out because of how badly they were congoed, so I stopped ripping them apart and separating to prevent damage to my hair. yeah, well in those couple of weeks, the congos just went totally crazy! The dreads on the very back of my head were SO SHORT! Like just a few inches long. And the mat became very thick. And the back of my head, and the right side, were on there way to being one massive dread, just so so bad.

I've spent so. much. time. brushing them and I'm still not all the way done... but getting there. It's just the back that is being very stubborn. And I already really miss my dreads!

What I've learned:

- Always, always, ALWAYS separate. For me, I needed to do that every single day, but was only doing it once after washing every 3 or 4 days, and not always right away.

- I had too many dreads and bad separation. I started with 22 not-the-best-shape-separation dreads and split up each one at a time into multiple dreads, ending with over 80. And with so many loose falling out dreads, it was time consuming to separate, so I didn't do it as well or as often as I should have.

- Totally neglecting them (meaning no separating) at the end, made the congos worse than ever.. I had. so. many. gigantic. congos.

- I'm still not sure I can have dreads with my whitewater kayaking addiction. Wet hair rubbing against a helmet seems to lead to a gigantic mat back there. I don't know what to do about this and I'm nervous to try again because of it.

I took a few photos of the shortness in the middle (with drastic length difference after brushing out the sides). It was tough to get photos of that mat. I might post some of those later.

So thanks everyone for joining me on my short journey, helping me along and giving me advice. I might try again one day.

Sorry you wound up taking them back out. Mine are natural dreads at 8 months and I still separate daily. It did get easier, but I find that if I don't do it every day I have an issue the next day with major congos wanting to start. Maybe try wrapping them next time so that the white water rafting helmet isn't as much as an issue? Just a thought.